Majority Leader Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, D-Boulder, in her new leather chair in the House chamber.

Gov. John Hickenlooper issued an election-eve budget plan that supported taxpayer refunds next year, but his Democratic colleagues in the legislature are openly considering a move to spend the money.

The talk comes as the Joint Budget Committee continues preliminary meetings to craft the state budget and raises the specter of an intraparty showdown on one of the top legislative issues in the upcoming 2015 session.

Under the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, Colorado must return any tax collections in excess of its constitutional revenue cap, which is set by the rate of inflation plus population growth. Right now, the state forecasts a potential $130 million refund.

In a recent interview, noted in a story looking at Hickenlooper’s second term, incoming House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst made the most direct suggestion that Democrats may support a ballot measure in 2015 to ask voters to keep the money for state spending instead of issuing a refund

“If we don’t do anything as a state, we are going to be spending almost as much money as we refund, refunding money to people, which doesn’t seem to make a lot of common sense to me,” the Boulder Democrat said. “The people would be far better off if we invested that in infrastructure, education — something that really benefited them rather than (them) getting their 50 bucks to spend on a tank of gas or something.”

Rep. Jenise May, an Adams county Democrat, lost her re-election bid. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)

Adams County made official today what Colorado House Democrats have known in their heavy hearts for a while: Rep. Jenise May won’t be returning in January.

A week ago, May was down by 110 votes to Republican JoAnn Windholz in House District 30. Neither May nor Windholz participated in their caucus leadership elections while they waited for the Adams County clerk’s office to call voters who forgot to sign their ballots, or whose signature on the ballot didn’t match the signature on file and such. May learned today that the “curing” process was over. She lost by 106 votes instead of 110 votes.

JoAnn Windholz (House GOP caucus)

As a result, Speaker-designee Dickey Lee Hullinghorst of Boulder now must pick two members to serve on the powerful Joint Budget Committee. Both House Democrats on the JBC are gone: May lost her election and JBC chair Crisanta Duran was just elected as the House majority leader.

“I’ll continue on the JBC for a few more days until they replace me and then I’ll help my replacement transition,” May said

“It was an experience,” May said, of her legislative experience, which officially ends Jan. 7. “I did a lot of things for my community that I’m proud of.”

Gessler blasted Democrats in a news release sent from his office. The release claims that during a discussion on whether Gessler should come talk to the committee in person, Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, uninvited the secretary, and then uttered some swine snark:

It’s a ritual at the state legislature: A member of the Joint Budget Committee questions the cost-effectiveness of the Colorado State Fair and Pueblo lawmakers react like a mama grizzly whose cub just got snatched.

It happened again last week, when JBC member Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen, questioned the location of the fair, which is in Pueblo. Two state House members from Pueblo — Republican Clarice Navarro-Ratzlaff and Democrat Leroy Garcia — railed against any relocation idea.

Years ago, when Democrat Tom Plant of Nederland served in the House and on the JBC, he soothed Pueblo lawmakers feelings by telling them the State Fair was here to stay.

“Without the State Fair,” he said, “Pat Benatar, the 38 Special and The Guess Who would have nowhere to play.”

The Joint Budget Committee’s certificate to Attorney General John Suthers.

Attorney General John Suthers

A bit of Colorado history is needed in order to understand why the Joint Budget Committee presented a certificate to Attorney General John Suthers for appearing nine times before the group without suffering a heart attack.

Suthers said the certificate had nothing to do with his surviving budget cuts and JBC decisions. It had to do with the late Duke Dunbar, attorney general from 1951 to 1972 and Colorado’s longest serving officeholder.

From “The People’s Lawyer, The History of the Colorado Attorney General’s Office,” by Suthers and Terri Connell:

“On November 2, 1972, Dunbar attended a Joint Budget Committee meeting to discuss his office budget. In the course of the hearing, he felt a severe pain in his head and asked for a recess. By the time he reached his office on the first floor of the capitol, he had lost his eyesight. He was suffering a stroke. Two Assistants drove him to St. Luke’s Hopsital where he died at 2:10 a.m. on November 3rd.”

Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, says the way the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration could do a better job of calculating pay scales.

Republicans and Democrats are taking sides over the credibility of the salary survey that helps determine whether state employees are paid on par with others in the same jobs, and it’s usually the best argument for legislators to grant raises.

Wednesday the Democrats who control the powerful Joint Budget Committee issued a letter firing back at a letter last week by the Senate Republican caucus that accused the state Department of Personnel and Administration of doing a poor job with the survey and disregarding the law.

“There have been several reports over the past year that indicate that the Colorado salary survey conducted by your office has not been conducted according to best practices, or according to statutory requirements for determination and comparisons of total compensation,” the Republicans wrote in the July 19 letter to the agency’s executive director, Kathy Nesbitt.

UPDATE:Democratic Sens. Angela Giron, Lucia Guzman and Jessie Ulibarri will travel to Fort Lyon with Gov. Hickenlooper’s staff on Saturday before the Senate takes on House Bill 1261.

At a caucus gathering for Senate Democrats earlier in the week, Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia urged lawmakers to support a proposal that would designate a portion of the old Fort Lyon prison as a residential facility for the state’s homeless.

Fort Lyon in Las Animas. The Denver Post

Joined by several high-level officials from Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office, Garcia, in an effort to bolster support for the measure, extended an invitation to fly senators to Las Animas this Saturday to tour the facility that was shuttered at the request of the governor in 2011 when the state faced a more than $1 billion budget shortfall.

But the trip may not pan out because the Senate could have to do floor work Saturday.

House Bill 1261 — co-sponsored by more than a dozen Democrats and Republicans — also would provide the homeless with substance-abuse supportive services, medical care and job training. The state would bus the homeless from the Front Range and Western Slope to rural southeastern Colorado.

The measure passed out of the House easily, though it now heads to the Senate where it could face a tougher battle.

[media-credit id=302 align=”alignright” width=”270″][/media-credit] Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, talked privately on the side of the House chambers late Thursday with Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, after Pabon introduced a budget amendment that infuriated Republicans.

A budget debate in the Colorado House blew up late Thursday after a final amendment by a Democrat that Republicans argued was akin to a touchdown victory dance and spiking the ball in their faces.

Republican Rep. Cheri Gerou of Evergreen raced across the House chamber to yell at her two Joint Budget Committee colleagues, Democrats Claire Levy of Boulder and Crisanta Duran of Denver, telling them the move cost them GOP votes on the budget. Duran responded that Gerou was an example of Republican childishness.

After the House adjourned at 10:13 p.m., Gerou also ripped a fellow Republican, Rep. Lori Saine of Dacono, saying her comments during the budget debate didn’t help the situation.

Sen. Pat Steadman said he’s frustrated that a bill requiring gun buyers to pay for their background checks is being held up by his own party, possibly to be introduced as part of package of gun bills.

“In my mind this is a fiscal-policy issue about how we fund state government services,” said the Denver Democrat, who serves on the Joint Budget Committee. “It ought not to wait on a larger package of gun safety legislation.

“We should do it in a hurry. Every day that we debate gun issues under this Gold Dome, or every day it gets talked about in Washington, more and more people are going to try to make a purchase … and create more of a backlog. That’s why I’ve spent over a week trying to shake this thing loose.”

[media-credit id=302 align=”aligncenter” width=”495″][/media-credit] The GOP caucus in the House in April celebrates the passage of the budget with an historic vote. Speaker Frank McNulty, in the white shirt, is surrounded by members of the Joint Budget Committee and other House Republican leaders.

The GOP caucus in the House in April celebrates the passage of the budget with an historic vote. Speaker Frank McNulty, in the white shirt, is surrounded by members of the Joint Budget Committee and other House Republican leaders.[/caption]The vote is likely to go down in state history: the Colorado House in April approved the state budget 64-1.

Not bad considering the split in the chamber: 33 Republicans and 32 Democrats.

Much of the credit for the unprecedented bipartisanship went to House Speaker Frank McNulty, a Highlands Ranch Republican, who corralled all but one of his caucus members to support the measure.

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Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.